October 23, 2023 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Meeting Summary
The Atlantic Herring Management Board met to set the quota periods for the 2024 Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishery, receive an update from the New England Fishery Management Council, and elect a Vice-Chair.
The Board considered quota periods for the 2024 Area 1A fishery. Per Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring, quota periods shall be determined annually for Area 1A. The Board can consider distributing the Area 1A sub-ACL using bi-monthly, trimester, or seasonal quota periods. The Board can also decide whether quota from January through May will be allocated later in the fishing season, and underages may be rolled from one period to the next within the same year.
For the 2024 Area 1A fishery, the Board adopted a seasonal quota approach with 72.8% available JuneSeptember and 27.2% available October-December with underages from June through September rolled into the October through December period, if applicable. These 2024 quota periods are the same as the quota periods implemented for the last four fishing years. The Area 1A fishery to close when 92% of the sub-ACL is projected to be reached, as required by Amendment 3.
The Board received an update from the New England Fishery Management Council (Council) on development of Amendment 10 to the federal Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Fishery Management Plan. The Council had already been working on an action “revisiting the Inshore Midwater Trawl Restricted Area that was developed under Amendment 8.” At its September 2023 meeting, the Council renamed the action to “minimize user conflicts related to the Atlantic herring fishery.” The Council also designated the action as an amendment intended to “address spatial and temporal allocation and management of Atlantic herring at the management unit level to minimize user conflicts, contribute to optimum yield, and support rebuilding of the resource.” The Council plans to conduct scoping meetings to inform the range of issues to be considered in Amendment 10. The Council’s Herring Committee and Plan Development Team will develop a scoping document and meeting schedule to be reviewed by the Council at their January 2024 meeting.
Finally, the Board approved Doug Grout, the New Hampshire Governor’s Appointee, as the new ViceChair. For more information, please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at EFranke@asmfc.org